TALES OF TERROR

Gozu (Cow head)

Gozu (Ox-head), also known as Cow Head, is a Japanese urban legend about a fictional story called 'Cow Head'. Supposedly the Cow Head story is so horrifying that people who read or hear it are overcome with fear so great that they tremble violently for days on end until they die. One variation involves a teacher who tells a bored group of school children the story, resulting in both children and teacher becoming catatonic and losing their memory. Other variations include the detail that no one is able to retell the story since they die after hearing it. The Cow Head story was rumored to be an unpublished piece from sci-fi writer Sakyo Komatsu, but there is no evidence to link the author to the legend. A Ukrainian folktale called Cow's Head does exist, about a woman who receives good fortune by offering food and shelter to a disembodied cow's head that visits her one night, as well as a 2003 film called Gozu, directed by Takashi Miike, neither of which are linked to the urban legend.